Posted on Sunday, 30th January 2011 by Auw Jimmy

Indonesia High End Audio Club or in short, IHEAC, held an blind test (or maybe I would prefer to call them as blind scoring) for tube pre-amp. The session was  started on the afternoon, around 11am. Some equipment used shown below.

We can see some stuff like Quadral Platinum M4 speaker, Consonance Droplet CD Player, Air Tight Reference Pre-Amp ATC-3, and KT88 tube amplifier (I believe in Push Pull configuration).

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Tags: Blind Test, iheac, pre amp, Pre Amplifier, preamplifier
Posted in DIY Audio, Indonesia | Comments (3)

Posted on Sunday, 8th February 2009 by Auw Jimmy

It was a nice day, a little bit rainy at the morning. I went to Bintaro (Mr. Didik home) to enjoy a Solid State Blind Test session. After around 1.5 hours traffic, finally I arrived there.

We used equipments as follow:

• NAD C542 CD Player and Aico top loading DVD Player (with External DAC)
• Aikido 6CG7/6072 Pre-amp
• DIY 3-way speaker (Woofer PL26, Mid P17, Tweeter XT25TG)

The contenders (first session)

• Unknown from Bandung (Mr. David SKP)
• LM3886 (Mr. Ado Bekasi)
• LM1875 Balanced (Mr. Ara)
• LM1875 Buffer 12SL7 (Mr. Budiarto W)

The contenders (second session):

• Lucky13 LM3886 (Mr. Dino Ary)
• LM3876 Buffer Nelson Pass (Mr. Dino Ary)
• MOSFET IRF (Mr. Ado Bekasi)
• MOSFET MP50Di (Mr. Didik WA)
• LM1875 Stasiun Bekasi (Pak Praka N)
• LM1875 Sentul (Pak Aip N Sentul)

It was a long sesssion. Although the session was ended at around 17:00, we still continued with some extra session, like loudspeakers and Pre-amp testing. We finally ended the session at 21:00.

Here is some photos. Enjoy!

“Filled the tank” before we started the session.

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Tags: Audio, audiophile, Blind Test, DIY-Audio, gainclone, LM1875, LM3875, MOSFET, pre amp
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (2)

Posted on Monday, 8th December 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Finally, I put my Aikido Pre Amp on the chassis. Well, was a tough job since normally I didn’t do such thing (e.g. putting my DIY work on “little bit” neat chassis).

I separated inside the chassis into 3 chambers. The first one was for the main transformer, the second was for the power supply unit, and the last one was for the Pre Amp parts itself. I used 5 mm MDF wood covered with thick aluminum foil. The foil then grounded to minimize the interference.

Actually, I planned to put this Pre Amp to the Blind Test Session last week. But, the White Cathode Follower used in my Pre Amp seemed have some trouble when connected to higher impedance load (e.g. the input volume control on amplifier). I need to check it to find and confirm the problem later.

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Tags: Aikido, Audio, chassis, DIY-Audio, pre amp, tube
Posted in DIY Audio, Personal | Comments (8)

Posted on Sunday, 7th December 2008 by Auw Jimmy

Last week, located at Audio Lifestyle Magazine office (also known as TubeLover showroom), held a Pre Amplifier Blind Test Session. If I could recall my brain correctly, we have 38 contenders, from Aikido 6SN7 Pre Amp, to antique #26/#27 Pre Amp. Well it was so nice and crowded session, from 10 am to 10 pm. Over 12 hours, 8 preliminary sessions (5 Pre Amp each) + 1 final session. I was sooo tired to judge in all those sessions (except session III where I need to receive some phone calls). We have 5 judges and some audience to pick favorite/people’s choice Pre Amp.

Enjoy some pics here. So many Pre Amp, so many design! The equipments was Consonance CD Player 2.2, Jadis Defy 7, and Tannoy Stirling full range speaker (with extra Fostex super tweeter).

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Tags: Audio, Blind Test, pre amp, Pre Amplifier, tube
Posted in DIY Audio | Comments (7)